Donna Smirniotopoulos: Response — Transparency does seem to be an issue in Norwalk

By Donna Smirniotopoulos

Updated
2:37 pm EDT, Wednesday, April 24, 2019

An open letter to Bruce Kimmel,

I was puzzled by your recent OpEd in the Norwalk Hour ( “Transparency is definitely not an issue,” April 21). Then again, you haven’t served on the Common Council in more than a year and may be unfamiliar with the dynamics of a 14-1 Democratic council serving under a Democratic mayor.

On March 12, the council voted 13-1 to approve the Redevelopment Agency’s Wall Street plan — an outcome that surprised no one, least of all the dozens who voiced their opposition in person and via email. This was the same meeting at which security and police officers tried to stop citizens from bringing signs into City Hall, and the mayor attempted to cut off Public Comment before the public had finished. The mayor has of course denied any involvement.

Last year, as a result of FOI requests, we learned that the mayor employs no process whatsoever to the appointment of land use commissioners, all of whom are political appointees. Despite the safeguards you say are in place to prevent backroom deals, this opaque process all but guarantees the mayor his desired outcome. When I met him for lunch in the fall of 2017, Mayor Rilling dangled an appointment in front of me, hoping to quell pre-election criticism on his handling of 17 Quintard/Firetree. Doug Stern, who knew nothing about zoning when the mayor appointed him in 2015 (according to Stern’s Letter of Intent obtained through an FOI request), parlayed that appointment into an at-large Common Council seat and then to a Democratic party nomination and successful run for Judge of Probate.

Last April I filed an ethics complaint against DTC Chair Ed Camacho for alleged conflict of interest. Months after I filed the complaint, I met with the investigative panel and subsequently submitted an envelope to the Law Department addressed to the panel, marked confidential, sealed with tape at both ends and signed over the tape. Without seeking my permission, Corporation Counsel Mario Coppola opened the envelope, then argued his right to do so as adviser to the Board of Ethics. Camacho is also BET chair, thanks to a mayoral appointment. The chair of your party that now holds a 14-1 majority is also the bodyguard of the city’s Rainy Day fund. All this comes in handy in an election year when the incumbent doesn’t want to raise taxes. What could possibly go wrong?

The city Law Department under Coppola subsequently made a pitch to join other municipalities in the opioid lawsuit. A committee of three — Richard Bonenfant, Michael Corsello and Coppola — interviewed several law firms in conjunction with this initiative. Bonenfant and Corsello seemed to have settled on a firm, and that firm was not Ventura Law, where Camacho works. But we wound up with Ventura anyway. When the Common Council approved the Ventura retainer, they may not have known that Camacho had a conflict of interest, perhaps because Camacho never submitted a COI disclosure as required under the city’s Code of Ethics. How do I know this? Thank the FOIA.

When the Board of Ethics ruled no probable cause, I wasn’t exactly surprised. They never spoke to Bonenfant. Or maybe they just didn’t care. Recently the Board of Ethics said they want to curb “vexatious” complaints. Meanwhile, Deputy Corporation Counsel Jeffry Spahr has made clear that the city will come after you if you ask to see what you’re entitled to see under the FOIA. But attempts by those on the payroll to intimidate those who aren’t are unremarkable.

Finally, you may be unfamiliar with efforts by the mayor’s staff and Tim Sheehan to award preferred developer status to John McClutchy of JHM before Gov. Malloy left office. The McClutchys have been generous supporters of the Connecticut Democratic Campaign Committee for years.

Revelations about the importance of awarding this contract to JHM surfaced as a result of an FOI request. The McClutchys also gave generously to the CDCC in 2014, the same year Malloy, in a violation of SEEC rules, allegedly used donations from state contractors to help finance his re-election bid. The state Democratic Party under Malloy got off with a $325,000 fine and a wrist slap. And now the Common Council is poised to name JHM the preferred redeveloper to resume work on Wall Street Place, dovetailing neatly into their approval of the Redevelopment plan nobody wanted.

If all of the above still suggests “transparency is definitely not an issue,” I have a new name for you — Rip Van Kimmel.

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